After completing my rewatch of the last episode, I found myself asking the same two questions I was asking after watching the episode the first time: Why Sierra over Sam? And who pushed this vote through? There’s some contradictory information that clouds the answer.

There was a general consensus that the players saw a need to break up the Sam/Sierra duo, but that’s about the only thing these players agreed on. Andy probably got the most screen time explaining his motivation, but we never actually saw Andy saying which player he wanted gone. It’s pretty hard to convince someone to vote for X without actually saying “We should vote for X.”

So, who else can we eliminate? Rachel and Sam didn’t vote of course, and neither of them wanted Sierra gone. Teeny wanted to keep Sierra in the game. When the tide clearly turned against Sam and Sierra, Teeny adjusted and pushed to remove Sam. That might have backfired because some knew how close Teeny was to Sierra. Genevieve and Caroline very vocal about wanting Rachel gone. We saw them saying Rachel was playing the best game and should go first. They said this in confessionals and around other players. They definitely didn’t get their way.

We saw Gabe telling Sol “I’m thinking if we can kill two birds with one stone and get a girl out of this game.” But after that, Gabe wasn’t shown throwing out a preference. Kyle asked him who he wanted gone and Gabe said “That’s the question. I don’t know.” Then later when Gabe was with Sol and Genevieve, he said “I think it’d be a good time to disarm them, whether it’s Sam or Sierra. How do you feel about that?” It wasn’t until Gabe was alone with Sol, Kyle and Sue that he finally said “I want to go Rachel. It’s not as good as Sierra, but it’s one less Gata.” Gabe didn’t get his first choice either.

So that leaves Kyle, Sol and Sue. Sue has been very consistent. She’ll vote with the majority. She waits for someone to tell her who to vote for. She didn’t push Sierra above Sam on the hitlist either. Kyle rode the fence. When he was with Gabe and Sue, Kye said “Sam’s more of a physical threat, but the social game’s the dangerous part.” Since Kyle has established himself as the Immunity threat, he could want Sam gone so he can keep winning. Then again, keeping Sam around enables Kyle to point out another physical threat. Who knows who he preferred? So, that leaves Sol.

We know Sol was very invested in keeping Rachel around. It appears he did a good job of diverting the votes away from her even if he curiously didn’t warn her she was in trouble. Sol did a good job of nodding and agreeing with Gabe when he suggested either Sam or Sierra leave next. But later, when Sol was alone with Teeny and Genevieve, they had this chat:

Teeny: “The easy thing to do which we can all see right now is to work with the Gatas and get a Tuku out (Genevieve frowns) because of Gabe.”

Sol: “I want to work with the Gata, I mean Tuku.”

Genevieve: “Me too. Would you rather lose Sam, Sierra or Rachel?”

Sol: “I think it would be Sierra.”

This is what launched Teeny’s campaign to save Sierra, which we know failed. Then when Gabe expressed his preference to go after Rachel, Sol countered with “I just want to split up that duo.”

And finally, there was Genevieve’s confessional just before Tribal Council: “Rachel’s my ultimate preference to go home but there are many different cooks in the kitchen, and we want different things. If you ask Teeny, she wants Sam out. Sol wants Sierra out. I would take out Rachel. She’s a strategic thinker and she’s social. I see her as a huge threat. In this group that will be voting together, what are the odds all 8 of us are gonna be like ‘Hey yeah, that’s the target we all agree on?’ Slim to none.”

My best guess is that Sol successfully pushed the votes away from Rachel when three of the eight wanted her gone immediately. That tells me people are listening to Sol. Because of that, I also think he was capable of pushing those votes to Sierra over Sam, whatever his reasoning was. Yes, Andy did a lot of grinning during Tribal Council, but when talking to other players before the vote, he did little more than tell everyone “I want to defect.” I don’t think he’s got the social capital to push one name over another. So, with all these factors at play, I think Sol was the mover in the vote to blindside Sierra. I think he did it as a means of bringing Rachel closer to him. With Sierra gone, Rachel is almost forced to embrace and trust Sol more than everyone. Even more than Sam or Andy.

Then again, Sol voted for Sam in the first round of voting. I told you it was cloudy.

So, for the second episode in a row, I’m most interested in what Sol is gonna do. Does he build a secret alliance with Kyle and Rachel? He needs two more for a majority, so does he recruit the Genevieve/Andy duo or pick up the strays in Sam and Teeny? Has he learned enough from his new buddy Kyle to realize how close Gabe, Sue and Caroline are? It doesn’t appear that Sam will ever work with Andy, so does Sol agree to remove one of them to appease the other? Sol has options…and tough decisions.

This season is wide open. There’s no frontrunner, and only one goat in Andy. It’s time for “Outwit” to take over this season.

And away we go ....

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The “Previously on” segment hints that Genevieve and Andy swung the blindside on Sierra. Sorry, I just don’t agree. Genevieve was very focused on removing Rachel.

Sam in confessional: Gata got got, and we happened to lose Andy. Now it’s every man for himself.” There was a reason I said you should have removed Andy instead of Jon. This is it.

Rachel to Sam: “I still want to protect you, man.” Don’t do it, Rachel. Don’t tell Sam you’ve got an Idol. He’ll use that info to save himself.

Rachel confirms she played her Shot In The Dark so she could read everyone’s reactions.

Andy to Sam: “I blindsided you, but I wanted you here this entire time." Andy still feels like he flipped the script on Gata. Not really, dude. You pulled a Cochran from South Pacific. You traded a bottom position in one alliance for a bottom position in the other alliance. It’s a move you had to make, but now comes the test.

Cochran didn’t execute a follow-up move to build a new alliance with those on the bottom of Coach’s group. That’s what you’ve got to do now. I don’t think Andy has it in him to get it done. Andy needs Genevieve, Sol and Kyle to unite.

Wow, we’re spending a lot of time getting Andy’s perspective. Now there’s a long segment of how Andy and Rachel never connected. Andy tells Rachel he’s wary of Kyle. Andy doesn’t get it, but we already knew that.

Rachel thinks she might need Andy. I’ll say it again. You probably wouldn’t have had this problem with Jon in the game.

Sam is doing a decent job of keeping his cool with the Lavo 3. Will it turn into vote support?

The tribe has to divide into pairs, and Sam picks Andy. Andy thinks he sincerely wants to work together, and Sam is confident he’ll beat Andy at the end. If I’m Andy, I see this as a perfect time to make sure Sam is vulnerable. Nobody wants me out, and Sam is already a big target.

I’m surprised there wasn’t a fight to partner with Kyle. I had a flashback to The Australian Outback when Jerri tried to claim Colby in a similar situation. Kyle picks Gabe for the same reason Sam picked Andy.

Sue is wearing Rome’s red lightning shirt. In a Secret Scene, Sol tried it on and looked like a pretty ripped wrestler in it.

It’s interesting that there’s only one male/female pairing.

We’ve seen every element of this Immunity Challenge before. I think the stair puzzle pieces will be the deciding factor.

The first two pairs to fall out lose their vote? Dammit! That just put a very sour taste in my mouth. What’s the point of doing this? It’s only interesting to me if the players know about this penalty before they pick the teams. Caroline’s face reflects my feelings perfectly.

Andy and Sam rip the bag off of their puzzle piece which gets stuck in the sand. Andy just can’t handle these challenges. He even has crappy luck.

Sam, Andy, Rachel and Caroline lose their votes but have a chance to win them back. In Survivor 45, Austin lied about losing his vote when he gained it back. I wonder if any of these four will try that?

When there’s a commercial break in between the challenge stages, it makes me suspect the producers budgeted time for the 90-minute episodes for longer challenge segments. Last week, the Auction took forever. I think that time would be better spent on the scramble before the vote. We’re a half-hour into the episode, and we still have to see four people make their Journey efforts. I think we’re gonna be left with as many questions about this week’s vote as last week’s.

I thought for sure somebody was gonna sprain an ankle falling into that net.

I don’t know if anybody has an edge in the last stage here.

Gabe: “Politely, Jeff, don’t talk to me.” Ok, I like Gabe a little more after that one. I remember Jonathan Penner said the same thing to Probst once, but he wasn’t polite about it at all.

My best guess is the person with the smallest feet would have an advantage, but all four of them look like their feet are pretty large.

Probst: “The good news about this challenge is nobody knows if you’re struggling or not.” Unless of course you keep telling them, Jeff.

Probst: “This would be Kyle’s fourth win, a perfect record this season.” Uhh, he lost to Teeny and Genevieve though. Does that not count?

Kyle losing Immunity is the best news for Sam and Rachel. But the wild card is nobody knows how many votes will actually be in play. At least four of the six people who have their votes would have to pile on Kyle, and two of them (Genevieve and Gabe) wanted Rachel out. Since Rachel doesn’t have a vote (for now), it’s almost a no-brainer for her to play her Idol. That way she’s got a shot at picking who leaves ... if she doesn’t tell anyone about her Idol, that is.

The little dance Gabe did after getting the Immunity necklace reminded me of a famous football player’s touchdown dance, but I can’t remember who. But Gabe ended it with a move like a Maori Warrior from New Zealand. But he loses style points for dropping the necklace.

Sam, Andy, Rachel and Caroline go on a Journey to get their votes back. I was wondering if Survivor had a rule about someone making multiple Journeys. I guess this answers my question. This is the second one for Andy and Caroline.

Kyle: “I don’t see Genevieve as a social thinker in this game.” That’s good and bad for Genevieve. It’s good because Kyle probably won’t target her anytime soon. It’s bad because she has a weak chance of getting Kyle’s possible Jury vote. Genevieve might be too far under the radar.

Sue: “If I lose Gabe, my whole game is shot.” This tells me Sue hasn’t been doing any strategic planning on her own. She’s totally dependent on Gabe.

Genevieve’s game confuses me. She picked the two most unstable allies as partners in Rome and then Andy. She put in some extra effort to gain Sol’s trust, but now she wants to get rid of him?

I’m thinking the four on the Journey will have to solve a puzzle to get their votes back. It would be more interesting to me if they had to compete against each other, and only one of them got their vote back. That way, all four of them would know who has the vote. Do they unite and try to fool the other six? Naah, Caroline would dutifully report back to Gabe and Sue.

Hey, maybe the Survivor Gods were listening to me. Three of them will get their votes back. I wonder if Rachel would consider tanking this one? She’d know Caroline will tell Gabe and Sue the results. Everyone knows Rachel no longer has her Shot in the Dark too. Rachel would appear to be more of a sitting duck than Sam was last week. She could pick the boot by playing her Idol. Who would she choose? I think it would have to be either Caroline or Sue. She could then try to lure Kyle to her side by saying she saved him.

Ahh, Sue told Genevieve she’d only vote for Sol if Gabe was cool with it. My theory has been confirmed.

Genevieve pitches Gabe on booting Sol, and admits she’d lose Teeny’s support. Why say this to Gabe? Especially since he’s already shown how receptive he is to the idea. Genevieve is consciously cutting herself off from every original Lavo member. She’s playing this worse than Andy is. She’s showing every Tuku how strategically she’s thinking without gaining any real partners. As Q would say “Big Mistake!”

The Journey people have to stack tiles to determine who loses their vote. This one has “Andy loses” written all over it, but with the plan back at camp, it’s more interesting if Caroline loses her vote.

And Caroline is out! This episode just got a lot more interesting! I think I have a subliminal connection to the Survivor Gods.

Caroline in confessional: “I really want it to be Kyle.” What’s with everyone changing their targets so much this season? Sue vowed revenge on Kyle, but is easily flipped to going after Sol? Caroline was dead set against Rachel, but now she wants Kyle? The majority was after Sam last week, and now he’s off the table completely? I’m not sure why it’s happening, but Teeny’s name just never comes up.

Caroline comes clean about losing her vote. She didn’t have much choice since they didn’t talk about it ahead of time. Did Sol just get saved?

Genevieve thinks she can bring Rachel in on the Sol blindside. Again, just last vote, Genevieve was dead set on removing Rachel! What’s going on with these people?

Rachel betrays her instincts and tells Sam that Sol is the target. It takes Sam about three seconds to warn Sol, and add that Rachel clued him in. Damn, Rachel, I’m disappointed. I thought you were smarter than that. But at least you didn’t tell anyone about your Idol.

Sam wants to go after Sue, but he knows Caroline doesn’t have a vote and can’t play her Shot In the Dark. What are these people thinking? Caroline is a risk-free target just like Sam was at the last vote.

Genevieve’s plan is blowing up, and I think it’s happening because she pitched it before finding out who lost their votes.

This week’s vote is muddier than last week’s. I don’t know who’s leaving, but I know it’s not Teeny. Oh, and Rachel can probably hold on to her Idol again. This season’s game is getting pretty sloppy now.

12 minutes left in the episode. I guess there won’t be a tie vote.

Sierra has her supermodel walk down pretty good.

The whispering starts after the first question. This is pretty chaotic.

It’s tough trying to read the captions while listening to the players answering Probst’s questions. Even though I know they’re giving Probst pretty meaningless responses, it’s still distracting.

This Tribal Council is a mess, and it might come down to Andy’s decision. That’s one more reason they should have kept Jon around.

Sol is at a big disadvantage being on the end.

And right on cue, Sol stands up to join in on the whispering. He had no choice. The chaos just flipped from frustrating to entertaining for me.

My thoughts exactly.

Sol is gone, and Teeny is crushed again.

We only saw one vote for Sue, so I’m guessing everybody piled on Sol. He put up a great fight, though.

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Recap

Props to Genevieve for getting this vote done. But I can’t see this as anything but a bad move for her. She lost two allies in Sol and Teeny, and she exposed herself as a mover and shaker. Everybody will know how easily she’ll change directions on them too. The Whack-A-Mole mentality that has dominated the New Era is bound to catch up to her. This was an unnecessary move because Sol was still willing to work with her. Sol is bound to find out this was her plan too. That hurts her chances to get Sol’s Jury vote.

Teeny is having a rough game. Every time it looks like a new #1 partner emerges (Kishan, Sierra, Sol) that person gets clipped. But again, nobody is talking about removing Teeny. This is turning into a great Jury story of persistence.

Gabe is playing pretty well too. I was impressed with his ability to maintain a degree of control amidst all the chaos. He even kept it together after losing Caroline’s vote.

I’m not sure how, but Rachel managed to slip under the radar. So did Kyle. The dude wore the Immunity necklace three times in a row, yet somehow fell below Sol and Sue on the hitlist.

Normally at this spot in my column, I ask a few questions for everyone to ponder, but I’m at a loss this week. This was so chaotic I need a whole day to let this sink in. Just the same, let me know what you think in the comments.

Oh wait, I know! Which football player did Gabe copy for his Immunity dance?